The Beta's Son

Chapter 3-Lynn

(Media: Lynn Merlee)

Lynn's Point of View

"Can I help you find something?" A voice boomed from behind me and I jumped, sucking in a breath and almost hitting my head on the shelf l was looking for a book on.

"Teagan! What are you doing here?" Teagan Pathe stared at me with bright green eyes, the way a cat watched a moving string before pouncing.

I felt intimidated and considered just leaving, without even waiting for an answer. Teagan belonged to one of the few covens left in Nothern Maine, and according to her, they were direct descendants of Salem witches. That power plus her being a full-blood made her that much more terrifying. I did my best to stay out of the way of the witches at this school, but sometimes contact was inevitable.

"I got caught making out and other things with a vamp during third period. Shelving books is my punishment." She laughed after that and I couldn't help but giggle. The mundane things our school did was always humorous. Like how in one classroom students could be learning about the history of dark arts and in the next they could be failing geometry. Or how Teagan gets caught letting a vampire suck her blood and she has to shelve books to learn her lesson? It was surreal.

"Can I help you find something?" She asked again, sliding a book between others on a shelf

"Um, yeah I was actually looking for something to help me with a mate problem." My voice lowered, my eyes scanned the room even though I already knew it was empty. Her eyebrows raised and a smirk played at her lips.

"Trouble in paradise?"

"You could say that," I mumbled. She took a step back and flicked her wrist. Dozens of books flew off the shelves and landed in a pile neatly on the floor.

"These are all the books that have to do with finding mates, rejecting mates, or killing their mates. Most of them are biographies about sad old wolves whose mates turned out to be serial killers or worse, accountants," I laughed at her joke before taking the stack to a table to look through them.

After about an hour, Teagan stomped back over to me with a scowl.

"Your page turning is driving me crazy, and your emotions are obnoxious. What exactly are you looking for, I can help us both end this torture." She said, pulling out a chair and plopping next to me.

"Witches can sense emotions?" She shook her head.

"No, your aura. It gets lighter or darker depending on your mood. It's been dark lately but since you walked in here its almost black."

"What is it normally?"

"You ask a lot of questions," she said, leaning back in the chair and rolling her eyes dramatically. I mumbled a sorry and we sat in silence for a moment.

"It's purple, guess. Or, violet, really. Its always been really bright, but sometimes it goes dim, like you want to be completely alone in the world." I bit the inside of my lip, trying to figure out how that made me feel. She interrupted my thoughts by tapping on the book I was looking at.

"Back to your mate problem?" l blinked my eyes trying to clear my head.

"Right. I need to reject someone, like officially. Being with him isn't safe for my pack."

"Really? I don't know the extent of your whole pack feud thing, but Ashton doesn't seem so bad?" My head snapped to her and I felt nauseous.

"You know? Does everyone know? Oh my god!" I covered my face with my hands and she laughed.

"Not everyone, just the witches. We've known for forever though, we see thes things happening way before they actually happen." I dismissed what she said and let out a breath. It was embarrassing to learn that witches pretty much knew everything that was going on with us even before we did.

"It's much deeper than you all see at school. His pack has killed members of mine. It goes back generations." I said simply, looking back at the book. I didn't bother to mention the fact that my parents had died at their hand, it would only have made me cry.

"You won't find anything in there you need. Follow me." She sashayed to the other end of the library to a door marked "restricted" and pulled out keys to open them.

"If you tell anyone I took you back here I will curse you." I didn't know if she was joking or not butIdecided against laughing. When she pulled the door open, it revealed a long corridor that I couldn't see the end to. The shelves were lined with shelfs full off books in every color and size.

"Shit," I muttered and Teagan laughed.

"There's quite a bit Colloway doesn't want us to know about," she tsked, referring to the Dean.

She waved her hand and again, a book came catapulting from somewhere way back down the hallway and landed neatly in her hands. With that, she pulled me out the door and slammed it shut.

"There are things in there that shouldn't get out," she said simply.

"Do you know what you're looking for?" She held a finger up to silence me and I bit my lip in anticipation while she flipped through pages. After several moments she smiled at herself and pointed down at the page.

The first thing I noticed was two wolves, painted at the top of the page intertwined in the other's limbs. There were gold hearts painted on their chests and out of them oozed something scarlet, something that I could only guess to be blood. "Splitting of souls" was written in red ink just below the wolves. The entire page gave me goosebumps but I read on anyway.

"To reject a half of yourself you must first not have any desire to keep it. Your heart must be disconnected, your love should have no place with it. To reject a half of yourself you must have a better half to make you whole. To reject a half of yourself you must bleed from the same hand on to the same soil under the same moon," I read aloud and the huffed dramatically.

"I don't speak witch, what does this mean?" Teagan rolled her eyes and took the book back, pointed down to the words.

"It's not as confusing as it sounds, trust me. It just says that in order to reject Ashton, you can't have any feelings for him whatsoever. You have to be completely unattached to him. You also have to have someone ready and willing to replace him. Its like reassigning mates. Someone who loves you. Like your boyfriend? What's his name again?" I started to answer but she cut me off. "Not important. The point is, whoever your boyfriend's mate would be, will then be Ashton's. And the whole blood thing is just what the witch needs to the spell. A bit of blood, cut with the same blade on the same night on the same hand, blah. Do you have a witch in mind to perform it?"

I was silent. I never spoke to any witches, I didn't have any witch friends, and I most certainly didn't want to ask any for a favor. Teagan grinned.

"I'd be happy to help you out for the right price." I groaned. Witches had a reputation of taking more than they give. They give you an apple and take the whole orchard.

"What do you want?" Even if I didn't want to strike a deal, I couldn't go on as Ashton's mate. Something had to be done.

"Just a favor. If, by any chance, I were to need a wolf, I want to know you're willing. No matter what it may be."

"No, no. Absolutely not. You'll make me help rob a bank or kill someone and I'm not doing that, no." She gave me a lazy smile.

"Lynn, please. What kind of things do you actually think I get involved in? I mean like I could use your sense of smell when looking for herbs, or a piece of wolf fur for potions. I'm not looking for a hitman." She threw her head back in laughter but I didn't move. I will still very weary, it wasn't smart to make deals with a witch. After a moment I finally huffed and nodded.

"Wonderful." She breathed and I felt my blood run cold. She shut the book quickly and skipped out of the library.

I couldn't help but feel like I had just made a terrible mistake.